Public lecture: Lighting the Local | 22 September 2014

Urban lighting is becoming increasingly crucial for place making. The questions which are raised for city street lighting are many and complex: lighting functions as a critical aspect of way-finding at night, helping create pathways through the city and also plays a role in crime prevention and security. Simultaneously, local specificities play an important role as city lighting sets an ambience that enhances a sense of place and can support city branding.

This panel discussion questions how to think about public lighting and the specifics of certain localities by presenting and discussing Configuring Light’s social research study of the lighting master plan for the city of Derby. The panel will be chaired by LSE Cities’ Fran Tonkiss and will comprise Pranali Parikh of Derby council, Satu Streatfield of Speirs+Major as well as Don Slater of the Configuring Light/Staging the Social research team and will discuss the role social research can play in understanding the city uses and users at night and how this can feed into the public lighting design process.

Coffee will be served from 9.30am with the panel discussion starting at 10.30am.

The morning panel discussion will be followed by a closed afternoon session. Confirmed speakers include Florence Lam (ARUP), Derek Porter (Parsons The New School for Design), Elettra Bordonaro (Social Light Movement) and Dr Adam Kaasa (School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art London). If you are interested in attending, please email configuringlight@lse.ac.uk.